[Poll] Speculating the new PvP meta

Trisul

(If you want to complain about the character rebalances, please post on the (many) other relevant threads out there for that topic.)

After the rebalance, it's pretty clear that the most consistent high-level PvP team (X-Force + Goddess) is slower than before, leading me to think that other teams might take the place of "xor". So now it's time to speculate; what teams will be used in high level PvP after the balances come live?

Let me know if there are teams I have forgotten, or perhaps other teams that will rise in the shadow of the Goddess nerf.

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TEAM RUNDOWN:

PvP speed teams: (KEY to the meta. Defined as speed-focused teams that are designed to kill other high level teams as fast as possible.)
- Patch/Hulk (aka Hulkbombing): Untouched by nerfs. Probably the fastest pair. New meta?
- Magneto/XF (aka Sexmagnet): Untouched by nerfs. The go-to pair before GT and IF were released.
- IF/XF (aka X-Fist): Iron Fist received a minor nerf.
- New XF/GT (aka Xor): Major nerfs. Just as fast against low-HP teams.

PvP hold teams: (Defined as an unshielded defensive team that scares other players from attacking it by being too dangerous or too slow.)
- Dino/GT: Largest HP pool.
- XF/GT: Nerfed, but virtually untouched in terms of defense.
- Cage/IF: Wear down through attrition.

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WHAT-IFS:

XF/IF become the new meta.
- X-Force counters it well due to green color strength.
- Low HP team, so actually XF/GT will remain strong on offense against it.
- Hulkbomb is strong against it due to additional attack tile triggering double Anger.

Hulkbomb becomes the new meta.
- X-Force counters it well due to green color strength.
- Hulkbombs are somewhat risky against other HulkBombs.
- XF/GT and XF/IF reliably beats it.

XF/GT stays the meta.
- Slower than before in the mirror matchup, so more susceptible to sniping by faster compositions.
- XF/IF are slow against it due to no red outlet vs. GT's 16k HP
- Hulkbomb reliably beats it.

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My guess: Hulk/Patch will again rise to prominence, with XF/GT a secondary option. Those that like to conserve shields will likely still rely on XF/GT for defensive purposes.

woopie

I'm probably going to stick with XF/4or, but I'm taking a long hard look at X-Fist. Despite buying 3 purple covers with surplus HP, I still think the 7 black for 5 purple exchange rate is great. It's faster than Doom and more reliable than Mystique. The only problem I've run into is in PVP where 1 SS isn't going to take down a 300+ goon so if I rack up obscene amounts of black, I run out of things to use it with.

turul

I'll play these, as always, based on which fits well mostly with loaner.
XF / IF
XF / Magneto
XF / Doom
XF / Loki
XF / GT

Unknown

Not having a usable Goddess, and not liking Hulkbombing, I've been using X-Force/Deadpool as my primary for a while now. Since I hit day 488 today - two days from my first of the three Goddess Daily awards - I was going to use those three covers, maybe buy some more (I'd have her at 4/3/3 with the three dailies) and transition to XF/GT.

Now, I'm planning on sticking with X-Force/Deadpool, I think. I had thought I might even keep going with my 4*s if I finished my Goddess up, but for now, I think I'll cap them at 170 or 175 or 180 or so.

Trisul

Ben Grimm wrote:

Not having a usable Goddess, and not liking Hulkbombing, I've been using X-Force/Deadpool as my primary for a while now. Since I hit day 488 today - two days from my first of the three Goddess Daily awards - I was going to use those three covers, maybe buy some more (I'd have her at 4/3/3 with the three dailies) and transition to XF/GT.

Now, I'm planning on sticking with X-Force/Deadpool, I think. I had thought I might even keep going with my 4*s if I finished my Goddess up, but for now, I think I'll cap them at 170 or 175 or 180 or so.

Do you shield hop with XF/DP Ben? (asking out of curiosity)

Unknown

What do you guys think of the possible GSBW xavier combo? GSBWS purple and xaviers blue can do over 8k dmg in one go and it charges the sniper rifle from GSBW. This might turn into the fastest team if boosting makes it a pretty quick occurrence. One problem is your sorta have to keep xavier under leveled so you can make sure that you are farming purple off of his passive triggers. I might be wrong about that though is GSBW's strongest color purple? its a super terrible defense team but it could potentially end fights in 1-2 matches.

Not sure if its good enough but worth considering.

Unknown

Trisul wrote:

Ben Grimm wrote:

Not having a usable Goddess, and not liking Hulkbombing, I've been using X-Force/Deadpool as my primary for a while now. Since I hit day 488 today - two days from my first of the three Goddess Daily awards - I was going to use those three covers, maybe buy some more (I'd have her at 4/3/3 with the three dailies) and transition to XF/GT.

Now, I'm planning on sticking with X-Force/Deadpool, I think. I had thought I might even keep going with my 4*s if I finished my Goddess up, but for now, I think I'll cap them at 170 or 175 or 180 or so.

Do you shield hop with XF/DP Ben? (asking out of curiosity)

Yup. They're actually pretty fast used with boosts - I can get Deadpool's red off immediately, and X-Force's green off after a single green match, and those two will take out most 3*s except the mega-HP ones, and seriously injure a 10k character. If the board is purple-rich I'll sometimes use Whales, which is nice to have as an option, and boosted I can get a SS off with two matches. It's not an OP combo, but it's an effective one that covers everything but blue.

That said, I don't shield hop that often. I'm comfortable taking on a 270 XF/GT team with it, and - aside from a handful of games with disaster-cascades - usually win pretty quickly.

GrumpySmurf1002

The new PvP meta, as with the old, will be "what team is the absolute fastest to win with?"

I'm still convinced Professor X - GSBW will be lightning fast, but only a handful will have that available. Other than that, it'll be XForce and a handful of characters (3Thor, Cap, Deadpool, Fist, Loki, Hood, 4Thor, Fury)

What I'm really curious of is how much 4Thor will actually drop off. That 16k health stlil takes time to chew through, and unlike Dino, she has a stun that can theoretically slow you down more.

Unknown

GSBW's strongest color is purple. The reason a 220 Xavier and 166 GSBW will never be the goto team: sub 6000 health characters. You get destroyed by even post nerf XF/TGT.

My money is on X-Fist. It's fast, boostable, effective, murders Hood/Loki/GSBW/anyone with <6800 health on turn 1, and typically swipes whatever color AP the featured character uses so you can use it. In scenarios where Featured high color is a passive you will need to XF them down first before throwing the SS all over the place.

Hulk bombing, while effective, costs too much in . It's literally eating Hulk alive for . Not great as far as defense goes either, as you SS on Green (twice) and Hulk/Patch can't work out which of their powers to use correctly.

simonsez

I predict she will stay in the meta at first, until people realize how godawful slow she'll become.

MarvelMan

Lerysh wrote:

GSBW's strongest color is purple. The reason a 220 Xavier and 166 GSBW will never be the goto team: sub 6000 health characters. You get destroyed by even post nerf XF/TGT.

My money is on X-Fist.

One for climbing, one for hopping.

GrumpySmurf1002

Lerysh wrote:

GSBW's strongest color is purple. The reason a 220 Xavier and 166 GSBW will never be the goto team: sub 6000 health characters. You get destroyed by even post nerf XF/TGT.

My money is on X-Fist. It's fast, boostable, effective, murders Hood/Loki/GSBW/anyone with <6800 health on turn 1, and typically swipes whatever color AP the featured character uses so you can use it. In scenarios where Featured high color is a passive you will need to XF them down first before throwing the SS all over the place.

Hulk bombing, while effective, costs too much in . It's literally eating Hulk alive for . Not great as far as defense goes either, as you SS on Green (twice) and Hulk/Patch can't work out which of their powers to use correctly.

At 221 Xavier will have 7852 health. And yes, it stinks defensively but if its quick enough, it won't matter, at least for hopping.

Unknown

THoress+Luke was my main duo.
Not sure who the new PVP meta will be but i think we might see alot more XF+IF or perhaps Luke+IF combos.

Trisul

X-Fist seems pretty sweet. The only potential problem I see with X-Fist if it becomes dominant is that XF/GT are almost exactly as good against it as they were before, and X-Fist slows down against them.

The more people abandon Goddess, the better X-Fist becomes.

Unknown

Xforce Hood and Xforce IF will be the top 2 teams.

Arondite

Climbing will be unchanged, you'll see Patch Daken up to 6-700.
From there, Shield hops will be Hulk + Patch Bombs for 2 quick games, then players will play the final game of their hop on either XForce + Hood, XForce + Goddess or XForce + Iron Fist.

Trisul

Arondite wrote:

Climbing will be unchanged, you'll see Patch Daken up to 6-700.
From there, Shield hops will be Hulk + Patch Bombs for 2 quick games, then players will play the final game of their hop on either XForce + Hood, XForce + Goddess or XForce + Iron Fist.

Yeah, that third team will completely depend on what the meta eventually evolves to be.

Arondite

Trisul wrote:

Arondite wrote:

Climbing will be unchanged, you'll see Patch Daken up to 6-700.
From there, Shield hops will be Hulk + Patch Bombs for 2 quick games, then players will play the final game of their hop on either XForce + Hood, XForce + Goddess or XForce + Iron Fist.

Yeah, that third team will completely depend on what the meta eventually evolves to be.

Yep. All these folks saying Patch + Hulk is unsustainable / can't be used seem to have forgotten how shield hopping works. XD If you guys don't believe me, just wait and check your retal nodes next month. XD

SnowcaTT

Ben Grimm wrote:

Not having a usable Goddess, and not liking Hulkbombing, I've been using X-Force/Deadpool as my primary for a while now. Since I hit day 488 today - two days from my first of the three Goddess Daily awards - I was going to use those three covers, maybe buy some more (I'd have her at 4/3/3 with the three dailies) and transition to XF/GT.

Now, I'm planning on sticking with X-Force/Deadpool, I think. I had thought I might even keep going with my 4*s if I finished my Goddess up, but for now, I think I'll cap them at 170 or 175 or 180 or so.

That's my situation and my go-to as well, with Hood thrown in vs Hood or as 3rd in Sim. It's easy to take out hulk (or anyone) by taking a little of the top before either X-force ability, and vs. Hulk or X-force surgical strike leads to another X-force hit to finish them off. (I don't shield hop)

Voted IF however - if I ever get him high enough before 2nd nerf (or X-force nerf) I can see IF/XF being one of the better teams.

GuntherBlobel

mageofshadow wrote:

What do you guys think of the possible GSBW xavier combo? GSBWS purple and xaviers blue can do over 8k dmg in one go and it charges the sniper rifle from GSBW. This might turn into the fastest team if boosting makes it a pretty quick occurrence. One problem is your sorta have to keep xavier under leveled so you can make sure that you are farming purple off of his passive triggers. I might be wrong about that though is GSBW's strongest color purple? its a super terrible defense team but it could potentially end fights in 1-2 matches.

Not sure if its good enough but worth considering.

The same could have been said about Winfinite and look where that is now. She may be next in line to be nerfed ala mnMags. Infinite combos will always be removed from the game and its now clear that the Devs considered Winfinite as a problem, but didn't think about gsBW. And yes, is her strongest color, but the Devs were unsure about that as well, which may be why it was overlooked.

Trisul

Never thought about GSBW/Xavier. Could be ridiculous if cascades will result in 3+ match-5s. Since you can reliably get 2 already, if it generates another one at a pretty high percentage (which I think it will), then you can loop really, really easily.